The Hubble Ultra Deep Field Image (see description on the right, below)

The Hubble Ultra Deep Field Image
(10,000 galaxies in an area 1% of the apparent size of the moon -- see description on the right, below)

Friday, August 15, 2014

2014 August

AEA Astronomy Club Newsletter August 2014

Contents
AEA Astronomy Club News & Calendar p.1
Video(s) & Picture(s) of the Month p. 3
Astronomy News p. 10
General Calendar p.11
    Colloquia, lectures, mtgs. p. 11
    Observing p. 13
Useful Links p. 14

About the Club p. 15

Club News & Calendar.

Calendar

Club Meeting Schedule:

21 Aug 2014

Club Meeting
Cancelled (vacation)
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18 Sept
Club Meeting
A Tour of the new Aerospace E POD (A6) Telescope & Facility
Richard Rudy
Gather in A6 Lobby then to          E Pod

AEA Astronomy Club meetings are on 3rd Thursdays at 11:45am.  For all of 2014 except May, the meeting room is A1/1735.

News:  

This month (August) the club will take a day of vacation instead of our usual monthly meeting.  Hopefully the A6 EPod telescope tour will be Sept. 18.

Preliminary reports from the Aug. 5 observing night at the Mt. Wilson 60-inch telescope are very favorable.  Here is a link to photos taken by Paul Rousseau:  https://www.flickr.com/gp/15354333@N05/C4YDM9/                                                      and Don Hall:  https://www.flickr.com/photos/twobears2/  

 

Alan Olson's report on the August 5 Mt Wilson 60-inch session

Conditions were great.  The air was smooth and we had the clear views for which Mt. Wilson is famous.  Even better, a marine layer crept in over the course of the night until by the time we left most of the city was covered.  We still had the moon to contend with, but on the upside it made for a great viewing target itself.

The objects we looked at:

 Mars: Just after sundown it wasn't the best conditions, but Mars was pretty clear and I was pretty sure I could make out a polar ice cap.

 Saturn: Gorgeous!  Bands visible in the atmosphere, the Cassini division clearly visible, and four moons strung out - three to one side and Titan alone on the other.  A fifth moon was visible right next to the rings with averted vision.

 NGC 6826 (Blinking Planetary): I didn't see this one as we went out to watch an Iridium flare.

 Moon: More like one small patch of the moon.  Only a couple of big craters could be seen in the eyepiece.  The detail was incredible.  Our docent attached his camera and took some pictures.

 Messier 13 (Hercules Cluster): Always a great object.  Filled the eyepiece, and resolved nearly down to the core.

 NGC 6543 (Cat's Eye Nebula): Bright and green.  Our docent took some pictures of this one too.  This proved a little difficult to pull off.  The nebula didn't show up on the camera's preview, and he had to go old school with the viewfinder.  Getting the nebula centered and focused was a little challenging.  In the end he got some pretty good shots.

 M 57 (Ring Nebula): Stood out clearly, but no color, and while I thought I could see the central star with averted vision I couldn't be sure it wasn't just wishful thinking.

 Epsilon 1 Lyrae (Double Double): Split the double double clearly.

 Beta 1 Cygni (Alberio): Blue and gold binary star.  Colors clear and bright.

 NGC 7331: They broke their guidelines by looking at this galaxy.  It is a bright spiral seen nearly edge-on.  All we could see was an elliptical blob with no obvious details.  Averted vision allowed me to see some hints of structure, but I couldn't see a definite spiral.

 NGC 7662 (Blue Snowball Nebula): A fuzzy blue ball that showed an internal ring with averted vision.

 Messier 15: Smaller and less spectacular than Messier 13, but a lovely object.

 Neptune: A small geen disc with Triton hovering nearby.  I've never seen Neptune resolve as anything other than a green dot, and it was a great way to end the session.

Alan

We’re still looking into scheduling another Mt. Wilson 60-inch session maybe in the Fall (we’ll see what our AEA budget allocation is).  Also, We’re also checking on the possibility of using Aerospace’s new 0.8m telescope at Mt. Wilson.


Another report from Jim Edwards:

Edwards’ Procedural & Observing Report:
Night of 7/30/14 – 8/1/14
·         Started about 10pm
o    no wind, approx 70° (dropping), patchy clouds clearing completely by 11:30, fine seeing
·         First use of Meade 10” SCT since dismantling to clean front corrector plate and primary mirror.
o    lots of preparation with cleaning solutions, materials, tools, etc
o    easier than expected, especially after all the horror stories I read on the i’net
·         Had spent an hour or so during the week writing set-up and operations procedures
o    too many times have I forgotten to do something and had to take much apart to correct
o    some steps are complicated and I forget exactly what to do
·         Did a bottom-up “fresh” set-up on my roof deck of all equipment in new location
o    hoping to be able to leave my system in place (and polar aligned), at least for the summer & fall
o    leveled tripod;  added mount, comm’ed to laptop, and polar aligned using EQMOD toolè tight;  added weights (forgot once- disaster!);  attached OTA, etc
o    test fit new “slide off” shelter that I had finished the previous day--- adequate
·         Worried about collimation of optics after disassembly, cleaning, and reassembly
o    aimed at bright star Arcturus with 25mm eyepiece, saw nothing--- oh no!
o    used my longest eyepiece (40mm) hoping I simply wasn’t centered on the star--- still nothing
o    then remembered that primary mirror had been moved all the way back in the tube so as to disconnect the focusing assembly
o    used focus knob to return mirror to mid-range positionè focus!
o    installed highest power eyepiece (4.5 mm) and defocussed slightly to examine Airy diskè collimation was already amazingly good!  Only minor tweaking to secondary mirror was needed (ala “Bob’s Knobs” on corrector plate).
·         Centered Arcturus in eyepiece (switched to 16 mm Nagler for all subsequent viewing)
o    aligned finder scope, Telrad, and green laser pointer correspondingly
o    synced EQMOD’s s/w to Arcturus as first star for “3 Star (polar) Alignment”
====== Now to work!
·         Wanted to inspect Landolt stars near zenith (for future photometric efforts) so slewed to nearby Vega (high overhead)
o    checked focus after slew--- little/no primary mirror shift, no adjustment needed
o    used as second star for “3 Star (polar) Alignment”
o    note: all subsequent goto’s (all in this approx region) were “spot on”, nearly centered in 16mm Nagler eyepiece
·         Slewed to highest grouping of Landolts west of meridian (to avoid mount “flip”)
o    shortly after midnight
o    SA 111-209  (magn 10.60):   RA 19° 37.904’ / Dec 0° 26.437 (J2000)
§  confirmed with very nearby SA 111-1969 (magn 10.38)
§  note: had little trouble viewing very nearby SA 111-1965 (magn 11.41), aided by averted vision
·         Slewed to asteroid “39 Laetitia” (approx 12:30 am)
o    candidate for my first photometric data collection
o    currently magn 9.57--- very easily seen
o    confirmed location wrt 3 other stars (magn 7.53, 7.37, and 10.12)
·         Did a couple of quick “safari hunt” slews to popular objects (note: did not allow for dark vision to kick in)
o    Dumbbell Nebula (M27)- hazy amorphous cloud, no discernable “dumbbell” shape
o    Ring Nebula (M57)- easily identified as a ring, some annular structure discernable
o    M92 (globular cluster)- ??? couldn’t see
o    Hercules (globular) Cluster (M3)- easily identified circular cloud, radial Gaussian distribution very evident, individual stars not visually discernable
·         Did not hook up club’s ATIK imager this time
·         Wrapped up around 1:30
o    slid new shelter over telescope, pretty easy


Astronomy Video(s) & Picture(s) of the Month
(from Astronomy Picture of the Day, APOD: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html)


Rosetta's Rendezvous 
Image Credit: 
ESA / Rosetta / MPS for OSIRIS Team; MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA
Explanation: On August 3rd, the Rosetta spacecraft's narrow angle camera captured this stunning image of the nucleus of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. After 10 years and 6.5 billion kilometers of travel along gravity assist trajectories looping throughinterplanetary space, Rosetta had approached to within 285 kilometers of its target. The curious double-lobed shape of the nucleus is revealed in amazing detail at an image resolution of 5.3 meters per pixel. About 4 kilometers across, the comet nucleus is presently just over 400 million kilometers from Earth, between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars. Now the first spacecraft to achieve a delicate orbit around a comet, Rosetta will swing to within 50 kilometers and closer in the coming weeks, identifiying candidate sites for landing its probe Philae later this year.
Tomorrow's picture: island universe

Video:  http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap140721.html 2014 July 21 

Spacecraft Rosetta Shows Comet has Two Components 
Image Credit: 
ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team; MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA
Explanation: Why does this comet's nucleus have two components? The surprising discovery that Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko has a double nucleus came late last week as ESA's robotic interplanetary spacecraft Rosetta continued its approach toward the ancient comet's core. Speculative ideas on how the double core was created include, currently, that Comet Churyumov–Gerasimenko is actually the result of the merger of two comets, that the comet is a loose pile of rubble pulled apart by tidal forces, that ice evaporation on the comet has been asymmetric, or that the comet has undergone some sort of explosive event. Pictured above, the comet's unusual 5-km sized comet nucleus is seen rotating over the course of a few hours, with each frame taken 20-minutes apart. Better images -- and hopefully more refined theories -- are expected as Rosetta is on track to enter orbit around Comet Churyumov–Gerasimenko's nucleus early next month, and by the end of the year, if possible, land a probe on it.

M106 Across the Spectrum 
Image Credit: X-ray - 
NASA / CXC / Caltech / P.Ogle et al., 
Optical - 
NASA/STScI, IR - NASA/JPL-Caltech, Radio - NSF/NRAO/VLA
Explanation: The spiral arms of bright, active galaxy M106 sprawl through this remarkable multiwavelength portrait, composed of image data from radio to X-rays, across the electromagnetic spectrum. Also known as NGC 4258, M106 can be found toward the northern constellation Canes Venatici. The well-measured distance to M106 is 23.5 million light-years, making this cosmic scene about 60,000 light-years across. Typical in grand spiral galaxies, dark dust lanes, youthful star clusters, and star forming regions trace spiral arms that converge on a bright nucleus. But this composite highlights two anomalous arms in radio (purple) and X-ray (blue) that seem to arise in the central region of M106, evidence of energetic jets of material blasting into the galaxy's disk. The jets are likely powered by matter falling into a massive central black hole.


3D Homunculus Nebula 
Science Credit: W. Steffen (
UNAM), M. Teodoro, T.I. Madura, 
J.H. Groh, T.R. Gull, A. Mehner, M.F. Corcoran, A. Damineli, K. Hamaguchi
 
Image Credit: NASA, 
Goddard Space Flight Center/SVS - Inset: NASA, ESA, Hubble SM4 ERO Team
Explanation: If you're looking for something to print with that new 3D printer, try out a copy of the Homunculus Nebula. The dusty, bipolar cosmic cloud is around 1 light-year across but is slightly scaled down for printing to about 1/4 light-nanosecond or 80 millimeters. The full scale Homunculus surrounds Eta Carinae, famously unstable massive stars in a binary system embedded in the extensive Carina Nebula about 7,500 light-years distant. Between 1838 and 1845, Eta Carinae underwent the Great Eruption becoming the second brightest star in planet Earth's night sky and ejecting the Homunculus Nebula. The new 3D model of the still expanding Homunculus was created by exploring the nebula with the European Southern Observatory's VLT/X-Shooter. That instrument is capable of mapping the velocity of molecular hydrogen gas through the nebula's dust at a fine resolution. It reveals trenches, divots and protrusions, even in the dust obscured regions that face away from Earth. Eta Carinae itself still undergoes violent outbursts, a candidate to explode in a spectacular supernova in the next few million years.


Auroras over Northern Canada 
Image Credit & 
Copyright: Kwon, O Chul (TWAN)
Explanation: Gusting solar winds and blasts of charged particles from the Sun resulted in several rewarding nights last December for those anticipating auroras. The above image captured dramatic auroras stretching across a sky near the town of Yellowknife innorthern Canada. The auroras were so bright that they not only inspired awe, but were easily visible on an image exposure of only 1.3 seconds. A video taken concurrently shows the dancing sky lights evolving in real time as tourists, many there just to see auroras, respond with cheers. The conical dwellings on the image right are teepees, while far in the background, near the image center, is the constellation of Orion.


Saturn's Swirling Cloudscape 
Image Credit: 
Cassini Imaging Team, SSI, JPL, ESA, NASA
Explanation: Acquiring its first sunlit views of far northern Saturn in late 2012, the Cassini spacecraft's wide-angle camera recorded this stunning, false-color image of the ringed planet's north pole. The composite of near-infrared image data results in red hues for low clouds and green for high ones, giving the Saturnian cloudscape a vivid appearance. Enormous by terrestrial standards, Saturn's north polar hurricane-like storm is deep, red, and about 2,000 kilometers wide. Clouds at its outer edge travel at over 500 kilometers per hour. Other atmospheric vortices also swirl inside the large, yellowish green, six-sided jet stream known as the hexagon. Beyond the cloud tops at the upper right, arcs of the planet's eye-catching rings appear bright blue.

Astronomy News:

Solar System Evolution: Peering Back at the Sun's Cosmic Womb

By Mike Wall, Senior Writer   |   August 07, 2014 02:01pm ET
[from www.Space.com]

http://assets.pinterest.com/images/PinExt.pngThis illustration depicts a protoplanetary disc around a newborn star.
Credit: 
Universityhttp://images.intellitxt.com/ast/adTypes/icon1.png of Copenhagen/Lars Buchhave

Astronomers have traced the growth of Earth's solar system back to its cosmic womb, before the sun and planets were born.
The solar system coalesced from a huge cloudhttp://images.intellitxt.com/ast/adTypes/icon1.png of dust and gas that was isolated from the rest of the Milky Way galaxy for up to 30 million years before the sun's birth nearly 4.6 billion years ago, a new study published online today (Aug. 7) in the journal Science suggests. This cloud spawned perhaps tens of thousands of other stars as well, researchers said.
If further work confirms these findings, "we will have the proof that planetary systems can survive very well early interactions with many stellar siblings," said lead author Maria Lugaro, of Monash University in Australia. [Take Our Solar System Quiz]
"In general, becoming more intimate with the stellar nursery where the sun was born can help us [set] the sun within the context of the other billions of stars that are born in our galaxy, and the solar system within the context of the large familyhttp://images.intellitxt.com/ast/adTypes/icon1.png of extrasolar planetary systems that are currently being discovered," Lugaro told Space.com via email.

A star is born

Radiometric dating of meteorites has given scientists a precise age for the solar system — 4.57 billion years, give or take a few hundred thousand years. (The sun formed first, and the planets then coalesced from the disk of leftover material orbiting our star.)
But Lugaro and her colleagues wanted to go back even further in time, to better understand how and when the solar system started taking shape.
This can be done by estimating the isotope abundances of certain radioactive elements known to be present throughout the Milky Way when the solar system was forming, and then comparing those abundances to the ones seen in ancient meteorites. (Isotopes are versions of an element that have different numbers of neutrons in their atomic nuclei.)  
Because radioactive materials decay from one isotope to another at precise rateshttp://images.intellitxt.com/ast/adTypes/icon1.png, this information allows researchers to determine when the cloud that formed the solar system segregated out from the greater galaxy — that is, when it ceased absorbing newly produced material from the interstellar medium.
Estimating radioisotope abudances throughout the Milky Way long ago is a tall order and involves complex computerhttp://images.intellitxt.com/ast/adTypes/icon1.png modeling of how stars evolve, generate heavy elements in their interiors and eventually eject these materials into space, Lugaro said.
But she and her team made a key breakthrough, coming up with a better understanding of the nuclear structure of one radioisotope known as hafnium-181. This advance led the researchers to a much improved picture of how hafnium-182 — a different isotope whose abundances in the early solar system are well known — is created inside stars.
"I think our main advantage has been to be a team of experts in different fields: stellar astrophysics, nuclear physics, and meteoritic and planetary science so we have managed to exchange information effectively," Lugaro said.

A long-lasting stellar nursery

The team's calculations suggest that the solar system's raw materials were isolated for a long time before the sun formed — perhaps as long as 30 million years.
"Considering that it took less than 100 million years for the terrestrial planets to form, this incubation time seems astonishingly long," Martin Bizzarro, of the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, wrote in an accompanying "Perspectives" piece in the same issue of Science.
Bizzarro, like Lugaro, thinks the new results could have applicationhttp://images.intellitxt.com/ast/adTypes/icon1.png far beyond our neck of the cosmic woods.
"With the anticipated discovery of Earthlike planets in habitable zones, the development of a unified model for the formation and evolution of our solar system is timely," Bizarro wrote. "The study of Lugaro et al. nicely illustrates that the integration of astrophysics, astronomy and cosmochemistry is the quickest route toward this challenging goal."
The researchers plan to investigate other heavy radioactive elements to confirm and refine their timing estimates, Lugaro said.
The abstract of the new study can be found here, while this link leads to the abstract of Bizzarro's companion piece.
Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us@Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com


General Calendar:

Colloquia, Lectures, Seminars, Meetings, Open Houses & Tours:

Colloquia:  Carnegie (Tues. 4pm), UCLA, Caltech (Wed. 4pm), IPAC (Wed. 12:15pm) & other Pasadena (daily 12-4pm):  http://obs.carnegiescience.edu/seminars/ 



1 Aug
7:30PM
SBAS Monthly General Meeting
Topic: What is Remotely Possible
Speaker: John Hoot

11 Aug
Griffith Observatory
Event Horizon Theater
8:00 PM to 10:00 PM


Aug. 14 & 15  The von Kármán Lecture Series: 2014
Curiosity's Second Year: The Epic and Occasionally Bogus Journey to the Foothills of Mt. Sharp
Curiosity, the rover that successfully landed on Mars in early August, 2012, has been busy refining how we think of Mars as a habitable planet. Gale Crater has presented the rover with rich new landscapes to study, such as ancient streambeds and shifting sand dunes. In July, 2013, Curiosity set off toward the 3-mile-high Mt. Sharp, where layers of ancient rock may hold clues to the environment of early Mars. The journey is nearing its end, but has not been without challenges. This talk will reveal some of the latest results from the last year of the mission and discuss the obstacles that the team has overcome along the way.
Speaker:
Dr. Ashwin Vasavada, MSL Deputy Project Scientist.

Locations:
Thursday, Aug 14, 2014, 7pm
The von Kármán Auditorium
at JPL
4800 Oak Grove Drive
Pasadena, CA
› Directions

Friday, Aug 15, 2014, 7pm
The Vosloh Forum at Pasadena City College
1570 East Colorado Blvd.
Pasadena, CA
› Directions


Webcast:
We offer two options to view the live streaming of our webcast on Thursday:
› 1) Ustream with real-time web chat to take public questions.
› 2)
Flash Player with open captioning
If you don't have Flash Player, you can download for free
here.




21 Aug 2014

Club Meeting
Cancelled (vacation)
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Observing:
The following data are from the 2014 Observer’s Handbook, and Sky & Telescope’s 2014 Skygazer’s Almanac & monthly Sky at a Glance.

Current sun & moon rise/set/phase data for L.A.:  http://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/usa/los-angeles

A weekly 5 minute video about what’s up in the night sky:  www.skyandtelescope.com/skyweek.

Sun, Moon & Planets for July:


Moon: Aug 4 1st quarter, Aug 10 full, Aug 17 last quarter, Aug25  new                 
Planets:  Mercury is at superior conjunction Aug 8, so not visible most of the month.  Venus is visible in ENE dawn twilightJupiter reappears in ENE morning twilight mid-month.  Saturn is in the SW evening sky, setting late evening, and Mars in the SW evening sky.
Other Events:

2 Aug
Public  Star Party: Griffith Observatory Grounds 2-10pm

12/13 August Perseids Meteor Shower peak


 
16 Aug
SBAS Saturday Night In Town Dark Sky Observing Session at Ridgecrest Middle School– 28915 North Bay Rd. RPV, Weather Permitting: Please contact Greg Benecke to confirm that the gate will be opened! http://www.sbastro.net/

18 August before Sunrise Venus Passes within 0.2 Degrees of Jupiter
Look low in the eastern sky before sunrise to see a close pairing of these two planets. They may
even be visible in daylight with a telescope.

23 Aug
SBAS out-of-town observing – contact Greg Benecke http://www.sbastro.net/.  
?
LAAS Dark Sky Night : Lockwood Valley (Steve Kufeld Astronomical Site; LAAS members and their guests only)

29 August Neptune at Opposition
30 Aug
Public  Star Party: Griffith Observatory Grounds 2-10pm

31 Aug Saturn 0.4 deg S of Moon, occultation in eastern USA

Internet Links:

Link(s) of the Month

A weekly 5 minute video about what’s up in the night sky:  www.skyandtelescope.com/skyweek.

Telescope, Binocular & Accessory Buying Guides


General


Regional (Southern California, Washington, D.C. & Colorado)


About the Club

Club Websites:  Internal (Aerospace): https://aeropedia.aero.org/aeropedia/index.php/Astronomy_Club  It is updated to reflect this newsletter, in addition to a listing of past club mtg. presentations, astronomy news, photos & events from prior newsletters, club equipment, membership & constitution.  We have linked some presentation materials from past mtgs.  Our club newsletters are also being posted to an external blog, “An Astronomical View” http://astronomicalview.blogspot.com/

 
Membership.  For information, current dues & application, contact Alan Olson, or see the club website (or Aerolink folder) where a form is also available (go to the membership link/folder & look at the bottom).  Benefits will include use of club telescope(s) & library/software, membership in The Astronomical League, discounts on Sky & Telescope magazine and Observer’s Handbook, field trips, great programs, having a say in club activities, acquisitions & elections, etc.

Committee Suggestions & Volunteers.  Feel free to contact:  Mark Clayson, President & Program Committee Chairman (& acting club VP), TBD Activities Committee Chairman (& club Secretary), or Alan Olson, Resource Committee Chairman (over equipment & library, and club Treasurer).

Mark Clayson,
AEA Astronomy Club President 

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